Thanks this time to the environment NGOs and the Social Platform we have received a document (which seems also to be a note of the secretariat to the Praesidium) on how they should proceed for Articles 1 to 7.
In this document the Presidium explains why they MAY NOT include public health as an Union objective:
"(...) the draft now includes most of the "social objectives" as identified by the Working Group on "Social Europe", some of which were not previously mentioned.
The Praesidium should assess whether this respects political balance, and whether such balance would be maintained if even all the Working Group’s objectives were added in Article 3, which would no doubt result in an extremely clumsy wording (for information, the full list of the Working Group is: "full employment, social justice, social peace, sustainable development, economic, social and territorial cohesion, social market economy, quality of work, lifelong learning, social inclusion, a high degree of social protection, equality between men and women, children’s rights, a high level of public health and efficient and high quality social services and services of general interest.")
For example, "lifelong learning" and "efficient and high quality service of general interest" may be seen as more specific concepts than the other elements now included. In addition, they would in any event also figure - with quite laboriously negotiated compromise formula in the case of services of general interest - both in the Charter (Articles 14 and 36) as well as in Part Three of the Constitution (cf. Articles 16, 150(2) TCE)."
"Some amendments propose to add a mention of public health (Michel + 5, Voggenhuber + Lichtenberger, Duhamel + 9, de Vries + 4, Lequiller, MacCormick, Hjelm-Wallén + 3, Nagy, Kaufmann, Floch, Palacio and López-Garrido) and access to education and professional training (Lequiller).
The Praesidium may decide not to take on board these elements (which of course will be mentioned both in the Charter and as specific objectives of the corresponding policies in Part Three), on the grounds that they concern areas of merely complementary competence of the Union; just as presently they do not figure in Article 2 TCE, it could be justified not to include them in an article based on the philosophy of presenting to the citizens in concise language the general objectives of the Union, i.e. those which are of horizontal importance and justify the very existence of the Union.)"
